Well, this is weird. Rumor has it one of the main Game of Thrones stars will not be featured in the upcoming season. I highly suggest grabbing some salt, and then coming back to discuss.

Kristian Nairn, who plays inevitable Game of Thrones winner Hodor on the show, says that he and Bran will not be featured in the upcoming season. This development would certainly be surprising, but not entirely implausible. As far as the published A Song of Ice and Fire books go, Bran is pretty well caught up with his story; furthermore, now that he's with the Three-Eyed Raven and exploring his skinchanging powers, he has access to the past and the answers to many of Game of Thrones' most captivating secrets. I can see the show neither wanting — or possibly being able to — continue Bran's story until he gets closer to the end of the series.

On the other hand, it would be super-weird for Game of Thrones to drop a major character and storyline for an entire season, especially when it's been so good about creating storylines specifically to keep characters on-screen (and actors employed). Even more problematically, Nairn seems to have announced this in an interview with Yahoo Australia, andI feel pretty confident that if Game of Thrones was making a decision this big a random interview with Nairn about his DJ tour would probably not be the first place to get the scoop. Certainly Isaac Hempstead-Wright, who plays Bran, didn't intimate anything of the sort when we talked to him at Comic-Con earlier this year.